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He lived during the Upper Cretaceous period, the final era of dinosaurs, and died in a floodplain, buried in mud that kept him very well preserved.
A horn injury near his cranium suggests he got into at least one nasty fight.
It is the latest dinosaur to be sold by the Drouot auction house which, according to its website, handled an allosaurus and a diplodocus each worth 1.4 million euros in 2018.
The Drouot auction house has sold several dinosaur skeletons over the past few years Christophe ARCHAMBAULT AFP/FileThe price tag means that museums are largely excluded from the purchase.
"We can't compete," said Francis Duranthon, director of the Toulouse Museum of Natural History.
He said 1.5 million euros represented 20 to 25 years of his acquisitions budget.
But auctioneer Alexandre Giquello said there was a good chance it would still be seen by the public.
He told AFP that half of those expressing an interest in Big John had stated their desire to show it in a museum, and it was not clear how the others felt.
Scientists had also been able to analyse the bones before the auction.
The triceratops is among the most distinctive of dinosaurs due to the three horns on its head -- one at the nose and two on the forehead -- that give the dinosaur its Latin name.
Dinosaur sales can be unpredictable, however: in 2020, several specimens offered in Paris did not find takers after minimum prices were not reached.
© 2021 AFP
Sobyanin said all non-essential retail, sporting and entertainment venues must close for the period. Shops selling food, medicine and other essentials will remain open.
Restaurants and cafes will be able to sell take-away food, the mayor said in a statement.
Mass events will be banned and schools will be closed, with the days off coinciding with national school holidays.
Theatres and museums can stay open, but entry will be allowed only with QR codes.
The mayor said the measures were necessary because the "situation in Moscow is continuing to develop according to the worst-case scenario."
'Show responsibility'
When restrictions end on November 8, Moscow will also halt free public transport passes for unvaccinated passengers over 60 or with chronic disease.
"Please take this decision with understanding. It was adopted with the aim of protecting the lives and health of the most vulnerable Muscovites," Sobyanin said.
He had previously told unvaccinated over-60s in the Russian capital to work from home and extended mandatory vaccinations for service workers.
Officials this week said the virus is spreading faster than ever, with Russia registering 36,339 new cases on Thursday Dimitar DILKOFF AFP/FileOfficials this week said the virus is spreading faster than ever, with Russia registering 36,339 new cases on Thursday.
Putin on Wednesday linked Russia's high death rates to what he called an "unfortunately" low vaccination rate.
"Please, show responsibility," Putin urged Russians.
Despite multiple pleas from Putin and the homegrown Sputnik V vaccine being widely available since December, many Russians are reluctant to vaccinate themselves.
Putin's own spokesman Dmitry Peksov said Wednesday that he had not been inoculated, even if he repeatedly urged Russians to do so.
Although it is being used in dozens of countries, Sputnik V is not approved by the EU or by the World Health Organization.
An aide to Russia's health minister, Alexei Kuznetsov, told local media on Thursday that the date for an inspection by the EU's drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, is "still being discussed."
"We are preparing a visit (by the EMA) this year," he was quoted as saying by state news agency TASS.
Western vaccines are not available in Russia and the Kremlin this week insisted that bringing them into the country would not help the sluggish vaccination rates.
The fatalities on Thursday brought the country's official death toll from the disease to 227,389.
But figures published by statistics agency Rosstat in October paint a far darker picture, suggesting that more than 400,000 people have died in the country from the coronavirus.
© 2021 AFP
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